Sunday

Luke 22:1

Now the Feast of Unleavened Bread drew near, which is called Passover. 2 And the chief priests and the scribes sought how they might kill Him, for they feared the people.

3 Then Satan entered Judas, surnamed Iscariot, who was numbered among the twelve. 4 So he went his way and conferred with the chief priests and captains, how he might betray Him to them. 5 And they were glad, and agreed to give him money. 6 So he promised and sought opportunity to betray Him to them in the absence of the multitude.

7 Then came the Day of Unleavened Bread, when the Passover must be [a]killed. 8 And He sent Peter and John, saying, “Go and prepare the Passover for us, that we may eat.”

9 So they said to Him, “Where do You want us to prepare?”

10 And He said to them, “Behold, when you have entered the city, a man will meet you carrying a pitcher of water; follow him into the house which he enters. 11 Then you shall say to the master of the house, ‘The Teacher says to you, “Where is the guest room where I may eat the Passover with My disciples?” ’ 12 Then he will show you a large, furnished upper room; there make ready.”

13 So they went and found it just as He had said to them, and they prepared the Passover.

Prayer:
We adore Thee O Christ and we bless Thee for by Thy Holy Cross Thou hast redeemed the world.

Monday
Commentary from the Navarre Bible Commentary series on Luke 22

The feast of the Passover, the most solemn of all the Jewish feasts, was instituted by God to commemorate the exodus of the Israelites from Egypt and remind them of their former slavery from which he saved them (Deut 16:3). It began with the Passover supper on the evening of the fourteenth day of the month of Nisan (March-April), a little after sundown, and went on until 22 Nisan, the feast of the unleavened bread. The Mosaic Law laid down (Ex 12:15-20) that on the evening of 14 Nisan the Jews had to remove any trace of leaven from their houses and eat unleavened bread for the duration of the feast — reminding them that when the moment came to leave Egypt they had to leave in such a hurry that they had no time to prepare leavened bread to take with them (Ex 12:34).

Prayer:
Let the words of my mouth and the meditations of my heart be acceptable in Thy sight O Lord my strength and my redeemer

 

Tuesday
Commentary from the Navarre Bible Commentary series on Luke 22

The Passion of our Lord marks the climax of the struggle between God and the powers of evil. After the third temptation in the desert the devil departed from him until an opportune time (Lk 4:13). The time has now come: it is the hour of Christ’s enemies and of the power of darkness (cf. Lk 22:53), and it is also the hour of God’s definitive victory, for he “decreed that man should be saved through the wood of the cross. The tree of man’s defeat became his tree of victory; where life was lost, there life has been restored” (Roman Missal, Preface of the Triumph of the Cross).

7-13 This scene took place on 14 Nisan. Every Israelite was familiar with the details of preparations for the Passover: it involved a rite which Jewish tradition, based on God-given regulations contained in the Law of Moses (cf. note on Lk 22:1), had spelt out in minute detail — the unleavened loaves, bitter herbs, and the lamb to be sacrificed in the courtyard of the Temple in the late afternoon. Peter and John, therefore, were perfectly acquainted with all these details: the only enquiry concerns where the supper is to be held, and our Lord tells them exactly how to find the place.

The disciples think that all that is involved is the Passover meal: but Jesus is also thinking about the institution of the Holy Eucharist and the Sacrifice of the New Alliance, which will take the place of the sacrifices of the Old Testament.

Prayer:
O Lord come to my assistance, O Lord make haste to help me.

Wednesday
Luk 22:14 When the hour had come, He sat down, and the [b]twelve apostles with Him. 15 Then He said to them, “With fervent desire I have desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer; 16 for I say to you, I will no longer eat of it until it is fulfilled in the kingdom of God.”

17 Then He took the cup, and gave thanks, and said, “Take this and divide it among yourselves; 18 for I say to you, [c]I will not drink of the fruit of the vine until the kingdom of God comes.”

19 And He took bread, gave thanks and broke it, and gave it to them, saying, “This is My body which is given for you; do this in remembrance of Me.”

20 Likewise He also took the cup after supper, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in My blood, which is shed for you. 21 But behold, the hand of My betrayer is with Me on the table. 22 And truly the Son of Man goes as it has been determined, but woe to that man by whom He is betrayed!”

23 Then they began to question among themselves, which of them it was who would do this thing.

Prayer:

Holy, Holy, Holy Lord God Almighty, who was, and is, and is to come.
Thursday
Commentary on the Eucharist…

St John, the beloved disciple, sums up in a single phrase the sentiments welling up in Jesus’ soul at the Last Supper: “when Jesus knew that his hour had come to depart out of this world to the Father, having loved his own who were in the world, he loved them to the end” (Jn 13:1). Our Lord expresses his burning desire to spend the hours prior to his death with those whom he loves most on earth and, as happens when people are taking leave of their nearest and dearest, very affectionate words are exchanged (cf. Theophylact, Enarratio in Evangelium loannis, in loc.). His love is not confined to the Apostles; he is thinking of all men and women. He knows that this Passover meal marks the beginning of his Passion. He is going to anticipate the Sacrifice of the New Testament which would bring such benefits to mankind.

To fulfil his Father’s will, Jesus must necessarily go away, but his love, impelling him to stay with his own, moves him to institute the Eucharist, in which he stays behind, in which he remains really and truly present.

Prayer:
Holy, Holy, Holy Lord God of Hosts, the whole earth is filled with Thy Glory.

Friday
Commentary on the Eucharist #2…

St Josemaria in ‘Christ is Passing by’…of the human experience of two people who love each other, and yet are forced to part. They would like to stay together forever, but duty — in one form or another — forces them to separate. They are unable to fulfil their desire of remaining close to each other, so man’s love — which, great as it may be, is limited — seeks a symbolic gesture. People who make their farewells exchange gifts or perhaps a photograph …. Jesus Christ, perfect God and perfect man, leaves us, not a symbol, but a reality. He himself stays with us. He will go to the Father, but he will also remain among men. He will leave us, not simply a gift that will make us remember him, not an image that becomes blurred with time, like a photograph that soon fades and yellows, and has no meaning except for those who were contemporaries. Under the appearances of bread and wine, he is really present, with his body and blood, with his soul and divinity.”

Prayer:

Holy angel of the Lord my guardian pray to God for me.
Saturday
Final commentary on  the Eucharist…

After instituting the Eucharist, our Lord instructs the Apostles to perpetuate what he has done: the Church has always taken Christ’s words “Do this in remembrance of me”, to mean that he thereby made the Apostles and their successors priests of the New Covenant who would renew the Sacrifice of Calvary in an unbloody manner in the celebration of Holy Mass.

This means that at the centre of Christ’s entire activity stands the bloody Sacrifice he offered on the Cross — the Sacrifice of the New Covenant, prefigured in the sacrifices of the Old Law, in the offering made by Abel (Gen 4:4), by Abraham (Gen 15:10; 22:13), by Melchizedek (Gen 14:18-19; Heb 7:1-28). The Last Supper is the very Sacrifice of Calvary performed in advance of the event through the words of the Consecration. Similarly the Holy Mass renews this sacrifice which was offered once for all on the altar of the Cross: Christ alone is the victim, and the priest, at Supper, Calvary and Mass; the only thing that varies is the way he is offered.

Prayer:

O Come let us worship and fall down before Christ, O Son of God, Who didst rise from the dead, save us who chant unto Thee, Alleluia.